Because it's idiotic on the face of it, politically and potentially strategically. Politically, for sure, the risk-reward on this deal was negative. A bad wager. Strategically, it's my hunch that it's high risk.
And then to justify it by saying, "we don't want people to think we're racist..." How lame! The called us racist when we were strafing Afghanistan with artillery. It didn't stop us then.
What sense does that even make?
Your hunch is strategically it is high risk. Got any more to go on than your hunch?